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綁架 (2007)
Kidnap


Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 01/11/2008

In Kidnap, Rene Liu plays Ho, a cop who is the head of the kidnapping division. While trying to save the brother of a famous dancer, Hiu (Karena Lam), the operation goes wrong, and the brother is killed. Three years later, Hiu hatches a plan to kidnap the son of a wealthy businessman so she can pay for her dying husband's operation.

But things once again go awry, and Ho's son is taken instead. Pushed to the limit after being taken off the case by her superiors, Ho takes matters into her own hands to get her son back.

From beginning to end, Kidnap just screams "generic thriller". The film-makers didn't even bother to create a complete musical score for the movie, as much of it is ripped off wholesale from De Palma's The Untouchables.

Matters aren't helped any by the acting. It isn't really bad per se for the most part, but the main actors just seem bored and on auto-pilot. When scenes call for them to actually show some emotion, it comes off as forced, which is really not good at all for a character-driven movie such as this.

And, as unfortunately seems to be par for Hong Kong movies, the child actors are extremely annoying. I really didn't care if Ho's son lived or died, which really kills the whole point of the movie.

There are some attempts to liven things up with a few chase scenes. The effort here was appreciated, but again, it's stuff that most people (especially fans of Hong Kong action cinema) have seen dozens of times before, and done better to boot.

Most damningly, Kidnap really falls apart during its' climax. There's a shot of one of the characters dying that's supposed to shock the audience, but the CGI used is so transparent and awful-looking that it almost turns comedic.

Also, the ending itself is so cheesy and implausible that it leaves a bad taste in the viewer's mouth. Kidnap certainly isn't the worst movie ever made, but there are a lot out there that are much more deserving of your time.

[review from www.hkfilm.net]

Reviewer Score: 4

Reviewed by: dandan
Date: 08/22/2007
Summary: ninety-seven minutes of my life have been abducted...

yeung's (karena lam) brother was kidnapped and killed, when an accident during the police investigation. three years later, when she discovers that there may be a hope for her cancer-stricken husband, she decides that she is going to kidnap the son of a wealthy business man in order to fund the treatment. this brings her up against madam ho (rene liu), the officer who was in charge of her brother's case...

having enjoyed rene liu's last couple of films, and wanting to fill that last space in a buyoyo.com order, i decided to pick this up, even though it hadn't been generating particularly good reviews. i was to discover that these reviews should have been heeded...

the film has a relatively good narrative arc, with some clever devices and twists which, if only they'd had a decent script alongside them and, maybe, the film had been better cast, could've resulted in this being a pretty decent thriller. as it was, the script (and dreadful subtitles on the dvd) was pretty dire and really made things difficult for rene and karena: i don't really want to lay any blame at their feet, but they just weren't suited to their characters at all.

pretty bad...